How good will this Louisville win look at the end of the season?

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coolhandgopher

coolhandgopher

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I ask this largely because I wasn't able to watch the game yesterday or any games yet this season, but based off of statistics, both from yesterday and for the season. I'm not trying to take anything away from the Gophers win and my question is legitimate for those who watched-how good is Louisville? Do they look like a Top 25 type team all season or do you think they could end up being disappointing?

The reason I ask this is because so far, even if you exclude their loss yesterday, the stats indicate they aren't too impressive. Their forwards (Earl Clark and Terrance Williams) can play with anyone, but their guards are underwhelming. Samardo Samuels appeared to be one of the few freshman truly excelling, but when you look at his last two games (against Ole Miss and Minnesota) he has shot 4 for 17 and averaged 8 points, Louisville's first two games against major conference competition this season.

Consider also they play in the Big East which, as usual, will be very difficult this season. Louisville catches some scheduling breaks, playing UConn, Pitt, and Marquette only at home and also taking on Villanova, Georgetown, and Syracuse just once (the ridiculous Big East schedule only has them on home and homes with West Virginia, South Florida, and Notre Dame). In addition, their non-conference finishes with games at home against UAB and UNLV and then their game against Kentucky (not sure where that's played).

I guess I'm just wondering, beyond the name of Louisville and the ranking of #9, did you see a good team yesterday? A team that's not only a surefire NCAA qualifier but also a top 25 team? I hope from this day forward, their guards get things straightened out, Samuels gets back on track, and the Cardinals reel off about 20 wins in a row.
 

Good points. I think Louisville will be a better team at the end of the year - yesterday they didn't execute as well as they could have, which I think you have to give some credit to the Gophers. But Pitino will whip them into shape and get them playing better.

But will it matter in that beast of a conference? Heck, I think if they made it to the Elite 8 last year, I don't see why they couldn't make another conference/tournament run.

In short, I do think it will be a good win in two more months. Not sure Louisville will be a top 10 team again, but they'll be in the mix.
 

As The Gophers Go - So go The Cardinals

This is interesting because I see no reason to believe the Cardinals have any more potential than the Gophers do. Both teams will improve I am sure But, if it is not a given that the Gophers are a top 25 team, I doubt it is a sure thing that Louisville will stay in the top 25. Their guard play is not even average. They have very little depth and that hurt them saturday. Perhaps Minnesota is not a better team than Louisville, but their future looks just a bright.
 

Louisville hasn't come close to playing as well as they are capable of. They'll head into the tournament into the tournament as a four seed or better.
 



Dejuan Blair, Greg Monroe, Dante Cunningham, Luke Harangody, and Arinze Onuaku are a few other formidable guys that Samuels will be introduced to in the next couple months.
 

Two things:

Pitino solving his problems at the point

Samardo Samuels finding his aggressive streak (he's still really, really young in his basketball career but extremely talented) and the "light switch" finally coming on for him

I think if those two things happen this win for you will look very nice as UofL will challenge for the Top 3 in the Big East. If not, they're still a tournament team but not an "elite" one. Still, beating tournament bound teams is important to the Selection Committee (or so I've thought) and UofL is a tournament bound team barring a complete and utter disaster.
 

Louisville won't lose many games at home, so they will rack up enough quality wins to remain a Top 20-type of team all season. That will help us come selection time. In a perfect world, they put it together and go on a winning streak and get back into the Top Ten.

(Actually, in a perfect world, we don't even have to worry about Louisville. We just win enough games to not give the committee any chance to leave us out)
 

That team had a ton of talent. They had some poor shot selection and didn't have the benefit of 10 days to gear up for one game like we did. Once they have a little break in the schedule Pitino will straighten things out. I'd guess they end up as a 3 to 5 seed in the tourney.
 



I'm thinking this win will look REALLY good by the time March rolls around.

Louisville has too much talent, both on the roster and on the coaching staff, to not be pretty formidable by the end of the season. I still think they're going to be better than most of the Big East and that they'll have a nice seed all locked up by the NCAA Tournament.

What I'm really looking for now is for us to finish out with wins over SE Louisiana and High Point before hopefully taking down Michigan State and Ohio State at the Barn.

If we were to get to 14-0 by some miracle, that would really give us a nice spring board heading on the road for the first time in Big Ten play.
 

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